Flash Lite Shipments Cross 500m Mark, Microsoft is Latest Licensee
IT News Online Staff
2008-03-17
Adobe Systems Inc. announced that more than 500 million mobile devices have shipped with Adobe Flash Lite software to date. Flash Lite, Adobe's Flash Player runtime designed for mobile devices, has seen over 150% growth over the last year and is now delivered on mobile phones and devices from all major handset manufacturers worldwide.
Adobe also announced that Microsoft has become the latest company to license Flash Lite, for use in Microsoft Windows Mobile phones.
"With over half a billion devices now running Flash Lite we're extending the reach of high impact Web experiences to our connected mobile world," said Al Ramadan, senior vice president, Mobile and Devices at Adobe. "With Microsoft, the latest addition to our list of mobile partners, Flash technology's footprint continues to expand, promising more opportunities for Flash developers and more great content for mobile consumers around the world."
All major handset manufacturers worldwide license and ship mobile devices with Flash Lite today including LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and many others. New devices like the Nokia N95, the Nokia N96, the Sony Ericsson C-Series, the NTT DoCoMo's 905i series and the Sony Mylo support Flash Lite 3, the latest version of the software. Flash Lite runs on multiple platforms, including Windows Mobile, Symbian S60 and Qualcomm BREW, in addition to embedded operating systems on a variety of OEM platforms.
Microsoft has licensed Adobe Flash Lite software to enable Web browsing of Flash Player compatible content within the Internet Explorer Mobile browser in future versions of Microsoft Windows Mobile phones. Microsoft has also licensed Adobe Reader LE software for viewing Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) documents including email attachments and Web content. Both Adobe products will be made available to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) worldwide, who license Windows Mobile software.
The Flash Lite 3.x browser plug-in for Internet Explorer Mobile on Windows Mobile will provide users with access to rich and interactive Web content created using Adobe Flash technology. As the most popular and ubiquitous format on the Internet today, Adobe Flash powers many rich and engaging web sites, applications and animations. Adobe Reader LE will allow Windows Mobile users to easily and reliably view and navigate rich PDF content using innovative features developed to improve document readability on smaller screens.
"People want vibrant Web experiences and access to entertainment and information anywhere, anytime," said John O'Rourke, general manager, Mobile Communications Business at Microsoft Corp. "Bringing Flash Lite and Reader LE to the Windows Mobile experience will give consumers more of their favorite Web sites on the go."
In fiscal year 2007, Microsoft sold 11 million Windows Mobile licenses and expects to sell more than 20 million licenses in fiscal year 2008, making Windows Mobile a leading smartphone platform globally.
Adobe Flash Lite and Reader LE availability for Windows Mobile phones will be confirmed later.
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